


The Great Lions of Voltron

by AmyR



Series: The Great Lions of Voltron [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Don't Examine This Too Closely, Gen, Homesick Lance (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Sorry, Injured Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Lonely Lance (Voltron), No Romance, Platonic Relationships, Sick Lance (Voltron), Stressed Lance (Voltron), Tired Lance (Voltron), What Was I Thinking?, idk when this is set
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-10-29 09:43:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 4,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17805665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmyR/pseuds/AmyR
Summary: In the aftermath of a terrible battle the Castle of Lions and its inhabitants are left gravely injured.With the crystal damaged and the power failing, it's up to Lance.If he isn't killed by the poison in the air then it'll be by the cold or heat. He has to keep his teammates safe and try his best to repair the castle, all on his own.





	1. The Lions

**Author's Note:**

> This work was inspired by someone else's work. I really can't remember whose or what it's called. It's the same thing (but better), where the paladins are hurt and Lance and the castle are both in a state. And Hunk woke up and they had to rebuild the castle. And their suits were running out of power. If you have any idea what story that is, it'll be greatly appreciated

The legend of Voltron was well known throughout the Unvierse. Stories of the brave Lions and their Paladins that fought to protect them. 

They knew of the Black Lion, spirit of the air, the head of Voltron, the leader. The strongest, biggest and most skilled in combat. She is thought of as fearless and is the largest Lion of Voltron.

The Red Lion, the guardian of the fire, the right arm of Voltron and the black lion, second in command. The fastest and one of the smallest, while still being the fiercest, most temperamental and possessive of the bunch. 

The Green Lion, guardian of the forest, the left arm of Voltron. The smartest and most adventurous of the Voltron lions. Its is also the only lion with a cloaking device. While she is the smallest lion, everyone knows not to underestimate the green lion and her paladin, for what she lacked in size, she makes up in wit.

The Blue Lion, the guardian of ice and water, the right leg of Voltron. The most caring, happiest, confident and friendliest of them. Amongst the largest of the Voltron Lions, the Blue Lion is around the same size as the Yellow Lion, but smaller then the Black Lion. 

The Yellow Lion, the spirit of the earth, the left leg of Voltron. The most timid, but with a brave heart. The most fortified in terms of armour and battlements, and is the strongest and the most blast-resistant of the lions. 

•-••

Lance let a slight smile slip onto his face, only for it to turn into a sneer.

The great lions of Voltron. 

He let a scoff past his lips, his breath turning to a white cloud. He looked at the blue lion that stood before him. Eyes dark, frost creeping along her body, feet submerged, the lights at her feet faint and watery through the ice giving the room an eerie glow. Whisps of frost eminated off the ice, adding to the ambiance, and to the cold. 

The only sign of movement in the room, besides Lance himself, was the groaning of metal that echoed thought the castle every once in a while as the cold seeped into the walls of the castle, freezing it from the inside out.  
Lance let out another scoff, kicking a shard of ice at his feet. 

The guardian of ice, imprisoned and essentially dead in her own element.

The great lions of voltron.

The red lion sat at the bottom of a pool of molten metal caused by the sudden attack and the almost complete destruction of the crystal that powered the castle. She lay inaccessible and, as far as Lance knew, offline.

The yellow lion lay offline, buried under a massive landslide that took an entire section of the castle, caused by a desperate decision from Coran that, in the end, had sealed their fate.

The green lion was taken captive by the vines and shrubbery that had claimed another part of the castle. Lance assumed that she was offline as well, as her hangar was held shut by the vines.

Then there was the back lion. It was she that aggravated him the most. In the only section that wasn't freezing cold, searing hot, completely caved in or overgrown, she stood behind sealed doors, unharmed as far as Lance knew, in silent solitude.

 

Lance let out a growl of anger as the castle, dark and dead, creaked eerily.

Occasionally, there would be a soft beep that could only just be heard over the deafening silence. That was the remnants of the distress call that had been let out, echoing back to them.

The great lions of voltron.  
Reduced to nothing.  
Dead.


	2. Combating the Cold

Lance had estimated that it had been at least a week since he had gotten out of a cryopod. Time was a lot harder to estimate since the castle was almost completely sealed off from the outside world, which didn't have a sun to estimate with anyways.

At first, functioning had been difficult due to the intense temperatures, darkness, injuries sustained in battle and the fact that something seemed to be poisoning him with every step he took.

He trudged through the castle, passing the spot in the wall where he had almost ripped the paneling off in a fit of rage, eerie silence following him. His tracks caused the dust, that had settled on the ground, to shift and billowing around his feet. He sighed deeply before doubling over as a cough wracked through his body, causing his shoulders to shake. He looked at the palm of his hand and saw a spot of deep red; blood.

Sighing again he wiped his palm onto his tee shirt, already forgotten. He was about to enter the cold and he had found that his body, while now more desensitized to the temperatures around him, reacted badly to the cold. Sort of like PTSD.   
He had to find some more clothes, fast.

•-••

Quickening his pace Lance ducked into the nearest opening; Hunk's room.  
He scrambled blindly in the darkness, kicking over various objects as the cold seeped into his bones, bringing back the fear. The first sweater he encountered he threw onto his body. Thankfully, it fit him well enough and provided some warmth. Hugging his arms around his body for a few moments he allowed the air inside the clothes to warm to his body heat.

He searched for a few more minutes, the discomfort of the darkness paired with the unease that came with rifling through Hunk's things encouraging him to keep moving.

The next room was a tight squeeze as the door was stuck in a half open position. Lance had to force it open, feeling a painful twinge in his back, that hadn't healed properly, as he braced against the door, successfully widening the entrance. Ironically, it was Pidge's room.

Lance doubted that he would find anything in there, but decided not to leave without at least trying. "Desperate times call for desperate measures," Lance mumbled under his breath as he rifled through the darkness.  
He searched for a couple minutes when he found a beanie on the green paladin's nightstand. Hastily grabbing it, he jammed it onto his head, covering his ears, bringing some relief to the cold boy.

The next stop was Shiro's room where he had every little luck, and was unable to find anything that would really help him. He did find a sweatpants but decided that he could work with just his jeans. It was much too uncomfortable for him to wear something that personal of Shiros.

He slipped into his room after, grabbing his jacket that lay on his bed. He knew that he wouldn't really be able to move with both the jacket and sweater but took it anyways, just in case.

Keith's room was the last, and there he had a considerably better chance. He found a pair of fingerless gloves that had been left behind, and what he believed to be a handkerchief.

Trying to keep the grin off his face he knotted the handkerchief around his throat and slipped on the gloves. He flexed his fingers, the cold biting the tips. Sure they didn't cover his fingers, but they were better than nothing.


	3. Medbay

How much time had passed Lance couldn't say. It could have been weeks, maybe months.

The routine he had developed helped him maintain some semblance of sanity in the silent and dark ship. Lance had never been on one, but the castle was exactly what he expected a ghost ship to feel like. A remnant from a life.

Following the footsteps that had become well worn into the earth that had filled so many rooms, Lance quickly made his way through the corridor. The kerchief he wore around his neck pulled over his nose, acting as a filter to the toxic spores that wafted through the air. It was only when the dust turned to frost did he slow his pace and removed the cloth. 

He had found that the spores only lived a short while after leaving the plant, and were very, very sensitive to temperature changes. The would survive in the parts over grown with foliage, and some made it into the buried zone, but never into the cold, or hot. 

His pace changed from a brisk walk to a crawl as he rounded the corner to the medbay. 

Now the only room with power. Lance had waded through the freezing water, feeling his limbs grow numb, to get to the bridge where he had managed to hack the system to siphon off all the power to the medbay, to keep his friends alive.

The watery blue glow that emanated from the 6 cryopods before him chilled him more than the actual cold in the air, expressionless faces of his teammates behind the frosted glass worsening the situation. 

Numbers flashed on the screen, occasionally replaced by glaringly bright static and distorted figures as the broken remains of the crystal struggled to maintain the limited power.

Lance went around the each pod, checking their vitals and staring blankly at the foreign symbols that ticked away, showing when the occupant would be let out.

Lance could not read the numbers, not matter what he tried. Reading Atlaean had always been just beyond his reach, and was now even further away with the library submerged in ice and Coran in a pod.

He sighed, sending a quick smile over his shoulder to his friends and a wave of his hand as he exited the room. 

He continued down the corridor, the cold getting worse and worse almost to the point where it was unbearable. His breaths hurt as he moved, but that did not deter him. He know that the heat came next, so had learnt to be grateful for the cold.


	4. The Situation

A pained smile curled the corners of Lance's mouth a he thought of his situation. The castle had basically been separated into different biomes, each corresponding to the lion that resided in the area. 

Green came first from the main exit off the castle. The forest. It had long been overgrown with foliage so dense and regenerative that try as he might, Lance had been unable to hack through it. Everyday, it continues to grow, getting thicker and thicker, posioning the air, sealing his doom.   
Pidge, always the first one to jump at an opportunity, and had been the first one to run out the doors. Always learning and evolving and growing. She had the ability to weasel into spaces she occasionally did not belong and would take root and grow. 

Yellow was next. The earth filled numerous rooms, dry and crumbly in some places, and in large rocks in others. The foliage that had been growing seemed unable to grow in some parts of the soil, only spreading to the edge that made contact between the two sections.   
Hunk was always the second person. When something happened, he would be second in line, never brave enough to be point but knew where he was needed. He and Pidge had had the ability to work together in some instances, like where the earth and vegetation grew together. But ultimately, Hunk knew himself and, in the long run, could and would stand up for himself and survive on his own. He was strong and steadfast and unbreakable.

Then there was the ice. Next to the the earth, there was a span of mud where the temperatures were high enough to melt the ice. The ice was cold and unforgiving, but it was also a protective barrier from the elements. It was quick to spread and would would seep into your bones in a matter of minutes.  
Lance had been the next one out. He had raced after his best friends, desperate to keep them safe. He had always had the ability to worm into people's minds, and knew that he could be manipulative if he so chose. Lance could acclimatize to a situation easily, making him the favourite among many, while also the most dangerous.

Then the heat. The difference between the cold and hot was a startling one. From near freezing to searing heat. The fire was slowly working it's way through layers of ancient metal, and the only thing preventing it from completely melting through was the magic embedded in the walls of the castle. The fire was angry and aggressive, quick to jump out and hurt anyone who wandered too close. But, in all its destructive ways, it was what was keeping the cold from encroaching over the entire castle, the same way the cold tamed the fire.  
Keith had been in the training room, making him amongst the last the reach the doors. He had been such and angry and temperamental person, quick to hate and even hastier to fight. He had wanted the people who were attacking them to meet a terrible, but swift end. He hadn't wanted his teammates to get hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'd don't really like this chapter for obvious reasons, but Haha, here it is.


	5. Lance

It had been what? Months? Years?  
Lance no longer cared to know. 

The symbols on the cryopods continued to tick, not divulging any information to him.  
Not telling him when his friends would be out.  
Not telling him if they were healing properly.  
He didn't know and that aggravated him.

At times Lance was tempted to vent his anger towards the castle itself, but he knew that that would get him nowhere.  
He knew that it would just be a waste of time.  
He also knew the gravity of his situation.  
He was alone in the castle, trapped, with little power, and was running out of food. He didn't have time to spend throwing a tantrum. Instead he forced himself to work out the anger on the neverending list of repairs that had to be done on the castle.

In addition to those however, he had trouble sleeping, which was good in that he had more waking hours where he could try to fix the castle, but bad as it meant that his health deteriorated more and more with each passing day.

•-••

He had been seriously wounded in the battle, waking up buried under tonnes of rock and dirt, effectively buried alive. He had slowly dug himself out, pain from various injuries slowing the process even more, only to find the battle over and the planet deserted. His arm had been broken, there was a cut over his eye that had caused blood to impair his vision in one eye, and various other wounds, including one to the head that had thankfully helped with the pain.

He had struggled to find his friends, slowly dragging them back into the castle, and into the med bay. His adrenaline had been high, making the intense cold and hot marginally bearable. It was only when he had dragged in Shiro had he made the mistake of closing the doors behind him, to ensure that nothing entered the castle. But he hadn't known that at the time. The vines grew up in a matter of hours, creating the first layer of growth between the occupants of the castle and the door.

He had had to search through the destroyed wreckage of the castle to find Allura and Coran. It was only when he had gotten them in and prepared a pod for himself did the power begin to give serious trouble.

He had gone through the not yet frozen waters in the bridge to access the power grid of the castle. He had siphoned off all the power towards the medbay and the cryopods, his thoughts only on his friends.

That was when some of the damage to his body became a little more permanent, as he had collapsed in the corridors, soaked, to pained and frozen to make it to the medbay.

Since then Lance's left arm bent a little oddly, but that was insignificant in comparison. He had lost some of the feeling in his toes and fingers, making building and general functioning more difficult. He had a pain in his back and shoulder now, which acted up when he moved them into a certain position and limited what he could now do, and his skin had scarred badly. 

But probably the worst of all, the vision in his right eye was completely gone. The bright blue iris that had once been there as now pale and clouded over, the situation explained by a perfectly straight line marking from his eyebrow to below his cheekbone.

Then there was the other thing. The wound to his head that had numbed the pain on that day and helped so much had healed, but the side effects hadn't. Lance was now slightly desensitised toward any physical damage that was done to his body.

These things had taken Lance longer than he saw as necessary to grow accustomed to due to the fact that he had always been a very touchy person, in the sense that he used textures to help him regularly, an ability he no longer had.  
He also had depended on his sight, his vision once perfect. Now he couldn't even walk in a straight line.

In his first few days alone, the stress, frustration and anger had overwhelmed him, resulting in bloodied knuckles and wrecked walls. Now, Lance had grown, no longer the boy he had been all that time ago.

The good new was that Lance had always like to build, and would often assist his father when he was fixing or building something. This meant the he knew how to fix a pipe, and run an electrical circuit and, most importantly, how to weld.

Using his situation to his advantage, he worked for as long and hard as his body would allow before passing out into a fitful dream, reliving the day over and over, with a few changes each time.  
Him being too slow, and everyone dies.  
His friends getting killed in battle.  
Being buried alive, but unable to dig himself out.  
Total blindness where he is slowly suffocated by the earth. 

The list went on and every time he collapsed, his mind had spun a new way in which to torment him.


	6. What He Could Do

Time passed, Lance left unaware, and his friends still in the pods. He couldn't help them, so he did everything else that he could possible do.  
The soil and rocks that had once spilled out into the corridor and adjacent rooms was now piled up in one space. Lance had gotten to work on repairing the walls and electrical as best he could using the few tools he had found in an old store room. They were probably Coran's or maybe his grandfather. Or, quite possibly, even further back that that.

He had avoided the overgrown areas conpletely as he needed a proper filter to go into there, and his helmet had been lost, along with almost everyone elses save Keith, whose helmet lay crushed into pieces in the red lions hangar. And in there was simply too hot for Lance to manage.

Right now, Lance was working on clearing the main control room, hopefully then he could get the crystal into a better shape.

So far, he had managed to thaw most of the ice, but now the water remained. The materials he needed were stored in a room that was freezing but, thankfully, not flooded.  
Getting the parts, however, wasn't the problem, it was what he would do with the water. Pumping it anywhere else would be catastrophic.

It was the neverending supply of problems that slowed his progress even more than his newfound disability to perceive depth.


	7. Time

Lance had developed his own check of time, starting over from the basics, counting his pulse.

Since he had started counting, it had been almost 5 months. The healing of his team was slower than ever, as the crystal was struggling and the amount of power that was being produced was not nearly enough to power the pods properly. Not only that, but his progress was slow as well. In addition, his food source had been completely depleted, the castle having no power to formulate more. He hadn't been able to get to the front doors, but had found another way in and out of the castle and had resorted to wandering the planet outside, for short spans, in search of food.

The good new however was that he had successfully developed a poison lethal enough to poison the plants that grew in the green lions hangar. He had managed to wedge open the door and spray the room in a good coat of the toxin. The only downside was that it was lethal for Lance as well, and acted a lot faster on Lance than it did on the plants. 

He had not yet made it to the front doors, the foliage now blocking off most of the corridor, as well as the fact that the plants regrow on their own eventually. He had tried to cut off their energy source, but it seemed that they lived of carbon dioxide, like plants on earth, and nothing else, unlike plants on earth. And as Lance was living and breathing, as well was the barely functioning air circulation system, carbon dioxide in the environment was abundant enough for then to thrive.

The earth that had flooded the hallways had been slowly shovelled out to the planet through the hole in the side of the castle that it had come in through. But, like with every step he took, there was something in the way. The atmosphere outside was made up of mostly carbon as well, which meant that Lance was being poisoned every time he stepped out.


	8. Visitors

Lance had cleared out the dirt, greenery and most of the ice. The time elapsed since had been over 8 more months. He had grown used to his injuries and handicaps, his list of tasks now greatly reduced, the castle mostly repaired, only lacking power. Finding food had become increasingly difficult as time passed, but his body was slowly adapting to the environment outside, being able to stay out longer and longer each time.

He had tried to distribute power to the distress beacon that was emitted from the castle. How much that increased the time his friends remained in cryo however, he didn't know. 

But, it now meant that there was hope of someone receiving their message. And it was a compromise he was willing to make.

•-••

Almost 3 months passed before anyone landed on the planet. For the first time in a long, long time Lance was properly fed and sat around a warm fire, with an actual being to speak to.

A girl and a boy of a species Lance did not know had been the ones to come. They had been rightfully shocked to see the Castle of Lions in its current state. They had been both skeptical when they learnt that Lance was a paladin of Voltron, assuring him that he looked nothing like how he had before. He had told them what happened, and they had offered to stay and help, which Lance declined. He needed their help with something else. He needed a Balmeran crystal.

While they had found out about what had happened to Voltron, Lance also learnt what had happened outside.  
He learnt that they were located on the wrong side of the planet that meant that their already weak signal was being blocked by the natural topography of the land. He also found out that in their absence the Galra had raged war on the universe. Planets that had been loyal to Voltron had been felled in cold blood. He learnt that Voltron had been missing for over 2 years. The universe had become a dark and dreary place, and Voltron had receded into the myths and stories that people told their children to give them a little hope once again. Everyone now believed they were dead, and the Glara's presence everywhere only reinforced that belief.

They remained for a few days, simply for the sake of keeping the paladin company, helping Lance and doing what they could, giving him tools and materials that they had.   
They promised to return soon, hopefully with a Balmeran Crystal, but both Lance and them knew that that was a difficult, nearly inpossible task. They had left him supplies that would last him for a few months, and with a finally goodbye, they took their leave and the blue paladin was left alone once again. 

•-•


	9. Wait

Lance was once again left alone in the silence. At least now he could walk through of the Castle without a filter or fear of something getting into the castle. The walls were all patched up, the electrical system that ran inside them reconnected.

In a couple places there were dents he couldn't hammer out, but the look throughout was pretty uniform, and he was sure that Coran would be proud. There was also no actual way to test the circuits as there wasn't any power to run through it, but he was pretty sure that they worked. 

Their rooms had been returned to their original states, more or less, meaning that Lance's nights sleep was better now than it had been for the past couple years. 

He had recovered the bits and pieces of their armour, finding all the bayards thankfully. The use of a sword was very much appreciated, especially since he doubted that he posessed the strength to break the blade. Due to this, Lance's newfound broadsword was an important tool in the restoration of the Castle.

The temperatures had been restored, the ice only in the area directly around the crystal. The heat had been caused by a surge from the crystal and had died out eventually. Now Lance just had to dig the Red lion out from a grave of solid metal. The tools he had received helped greatly, but progress was still slow and tiring.

He once again had access to all but the red and black lions, all of them still offline however.

Now, all he had to do was wait.

•-•

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be continuing this in a second fic, just because I feel like how the two parts are, they really shouldn't be together. The same story, but very different. I hope that's ok. The fact that this ends with 9 chapters really annoys me tho, but I'll live.


End file.
